City of Lost Hope
by Shoogalooga
Summary: Jace and Clary back again:  Updates should be every week
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Jace woke up to a startlingly bright room and shut his eyes immediately, trying to blink out the pain. He groaned when he opened them again, but the room didn't seem as bright as before. He placed his hand on his face and rubbed his eye with his fingers and felt the stubble across his chin with his palm. He sat up and half ruffled his hair/half scratched his head while trying to ignore the pain in his back that the izrate hadn't gotten rid of.

Glancing to his left he saw that Clary was still asleep with her fiery hair spread around her and her hand underneath her cheek. She sighed gently in her slumbers and sank deeper into the pillow. Jace leaned back down carefully and rested his chin on his hand and just stared at her while she slept. She'd always been beautiful, but when she slept everything was just so peaceful that she almost glowed with her beauty.

A few minutes passed and the sun was coming directly in through the window on to her face. Jace rolled softly off the bed to pull the curtains shut and when he came back he found that Clary was awake and blinking the sleepiness out of her eyes. She yawned largely and then smiled afterward as Jace yawned in response.

"Good morning," she said lightly.

"Good morning," Jace replied with an uneven smile upon his face. He reached over to her and started playing with her hair. He could feel her green eyes focusing on him, but he didn't care. They were both alive. That was all that mattered.

"Well you're in a good mood," she said, chuckling under her breath and then abruptly sobering. "Jace?" Clary asked quietly.

He looked away from her hair for a moment and glanced into her eyes. "Yes?" he replied then went back to running his fingers through her hair.

"Did all of that really happen last night?" That made him stiffen and pull his hand away from her.

"Yes. It did. But we needn't worry about that now," he said, some of his eloquence working into his words as he tried to get Clary off the subject with his calm.

"But we do!" she said. "What about Alec and Isabelle? What about my mom and Luke? What about Maryse and Rober—"

"Clary," Jace sighed, cutting off her rant. Those could go on forever if she wasn't stopped in the beginning. "We can go and check on everyone now if you'd like that."

She paused at that and Jace hadn't been expecting her to do that. He thought she would have jumped up from the bed and ran to go find everyone. "You're sure they're all okay?"

"They're all fine. I was conscious. Everyone was brought here and Magnus was around making sure they would all make it through the night."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." He paused. "How are you feeling?"

"Sore. But other than that I feel alright. Do you know how he got here? I mean into this dimension? I thought all the portals into New York were gone. And why would anyone be summoning…them?" she said trailing off as Jace's face stayed the same.

"Magnus and I have been talking a bit. He's been noticing a lot of demon activity randomly coming from this area."

"You mean the demons are coming from around the Institute?"

"Not quite. I mean the demons are coming out of the Institute. Or rather they're appearing from the Institute seeing as they're never really inside it." Jace could tell that Clary didn't understand and even he didn't understand some of it. "That portal you made to Idris may have disappeared from this side of it, but Magnus believes that it's still existent where the other end is. That means that demons can get in easily if the portal hasn't been closed and it's leading them right to the Institute," he said gravely.

Clary worried her bottom lip with her teeth and looked down at the bed. "You mean to say, that I caused all of this. I almost killed everyone. I got us all attacked by a Greater Demon last night?"

She was going on a rant again. Jace took the hand closest to him from off the bed. "Clary," he said trying to calm her down. She didn't stop.

"I just almost killed everyone that means anything to me. I'm a horrible per—"

"Clary!" he said, cutting her off mid-word. "You are not a horrible person. None of us had any idea that this was ever going to happen. Don't blame yourself. Please," he murmured after she started paying attention to him.

"I…okay," she mumbled dejectedly after a pause that sounded like she was going to fight it.

"Thank you," Jace said as he leaned closer to her and brushed his lips against hers. He felt her fingers twine into his hair and he deepened the kiss slightly. Her lips were soft against his and he could feel her heartbeat stuttering. _Jace_, he thought to himself, _don't get distracted. You have work to do._ With a sigh he pulled back slightly and stared at her face. She looked a lot better now that she wasn't worrying about everyone else, but now it was his turn to do the worrying. Gently, he untangled himself from her and sat on the edge of the bed. He heard her tumbling off her side of the bed and coming around to look at him.

"I'm going to go take a shower," she said looking down at herself. Jace hadn't even realized that she was still covered in mud.

She opened the bathroom door and glanced back at him. "Jace?" she asked again. He looked up. "Are _you_ alright?"

"I'm fine," he lied. "Go take a shower. I'll be downstairs." With that he stood up and tried to walk as normally as he could so that she would believe what he had just said.

* * *

**I'd like your reviews of what you think. New chapters should be coming out every week to two week since school starts next week. I might get a lot in this week. If I get more than one chapter up, I'd advise you not to get your hopes up that it will be like that every week.**

**Thanks:D  
**


	2. Chapter 1 continued

When Jace heard the bathroom door shut and lock behind Clary he gasped with pain and leaned against the doorjamb of his room. He arched his back slightly so that it didn't touch the wall and found that it was a more comfortable position that with a normal straight back. He made his way toward the stairs. On the second step down he found Church curled up in a ball and staring at him with his large eyes.

"Hey there," he acknowledged him. "Where is everybody?" he said as he bent down to rub his back. Halfway down he felt the sharp pain in his back and tried to straighten his spine but only wound up losing his balance and tumbling over Church and all the way down the stairs until he hit the landing. He landed flat on his back and groaned in agony.

He saw Church slinking down the stairs and glared at him. All that got Jace was to have Church walk over him instead of around him. He could really care less. He heard the sound of bare feet running toward him. He closed his eyes and relaxed his neck.

"By the Angel, Jace!" he heard Izzy exclaim. "What happened to you?"

He looked up and saw her standing beside him in her robe. "I…fell?" he said, not quite sure exactly what to say so it came out more like a question than anything else.

"I can see that," she said. "Now _why_ did you fall?"

"I decided to take a tumble down a flight of stairs to wake myself up this morning. I've been trying different things all week. Yesterday it was flicking myself in the eye. The day before it was—," he started saying.

"Jace," she said threateningly.

"I tripped over Church."

Isabelle stared at him for a moment then shrugged her shoulders. "Alright." She offered him her hand. He took it and tried not to grimace as she pulled him up into a standing position.

Alec stuck his head out of his bedroom window. "What's going on out here?" he asked, not seeing anything out of the ordinary since Jace was no longer lying on the ground.

"Jace fell," Izzy said, sounding almost sarcastic.

Alec got a weird look on his face but said nothing. He glanced over as he saw Magnus walking out of Robert and Maryse's room with them following closely behind him.

"And what do we have here?" he asked delightedly. Then his face fell slightly when all he saw was Jace and Isabelle standing on the landing.

"Is everyone alright?" Robert asked.

Isabelle opened her mouth to say something but Jace cut her off before she could say anything. "Fine," he said loud enough for everyone to hear. "We're all fine."

It was silent for a moment and then Alec said, "Where's Clary? I thought she would've been the first one out here."

"She's taking a shower," Jace said. Everyone started to move around to do their daily things after they knew that everyone was alright. "And," he began. Everyone stopped and stared at him again. "I'd rather she didn't know about what just happened."

"What happened?" Magnus asked curiously.

"Exactly." Jace smiled.

"No, really. What just happened? You never told us," he said, getting confused.

"It's better that way. That means that there's less for you to hide." Jace looked around at everyone and saw that most of them were agreeing with him. It was hard to tell if Alec was agreeing since he was making weird facial expressions at Jace, trying to get his attention. He widened his eyes slightly at him and then cut them toward his bedroom. Jace looked at the door and was shocked to see that Clary was standing there with a towel wrapped around her. No doubt she came out to see what the commotion was all about.

"What's better to have less to hide?" she asked Jace quietly. "What are you hiding from me? Who can you be hiding something from except my mom and Luke…or me?" She glared at Jace suspiciously.

Jace sighed and made his way up the stairs with his back slightly arched again, trying not to lose his balance for the second time today. He made it up the stairs without grimacing so he considered it a success. He walked toward his bedroom, opened the door, and pulled Clary inside with him, shutting the door softly behind them.

* * *

The moment the door shut Alec walked over to where Isabelle was standing.

"He fell? When was the last time that Jace has ever fallen?" he asked incredulously.

"I believe that would be when he was thrown into a wall my Se-Jonathan," she said, stuttering slightly when she remembered his name wasn't Sebastian.

"Jace never falls. Why did he say that he fell in the first place?" Alec wondered.

"He said that he tripped over Church. I suppose it could happen but I don't think that's what it was. When I got here he was just laying there. He didn't even stand up."

"That's definitely not normal. But there's not much we can do now, is there?" Alec said as he glanced at the closed bedroom door. "He can't hide whatever it is from everybody. And now Clary knows he's hiding something. He has to tell her. Right?" he asked.

"I don't know Alec. I don't know."

* * *

"Jace, what aren't you telling me? Why are you trying to hide things from me? You can tell me anything. You know that, don't you?" Clary started out talking loudly then gradually got quieter.

"I know," he replied. That was all he said.

"If you know then why the Hell aren't you telling me?" Clary exploded. "Jace, I have a right to know what's going on! It's not like I'm a liability to you guys anymore. I know what I'm doing."

"I know you do Clary. I'm not saying that you don't. It just that…," he sighed, getting frustrated.

Clary hitched up her towel and folded it in on itself so that she didn't have to hold it up. She walked closer to Jace and put both of her hands on his shoulders. He looked up at her. "What is it?" she asked him gently.

"It's nothing really. My back has just been bothering me a little bit," he muttered.

"Your back?" Clary asked, getting concerned. "Did you try using an izrate?"

"Yes. I did. Nothing seems to be helping it."

Clary thought over that for a moment. "Have you talked to Magnus about it? Maybe he can do something to help."

"I'd rather not get Magnus involved in more drama over my sore back."

"For some reason I don't think he'd mind a little more drama," she said with a smile. "I'm going to go change. Wait here and I'll see what I can do about your back." With that she turned around and walked back into the bathroom.

Jace went back to the bed and sat on the edge, not wanting to lie down and experience any kind of pain like he had on the stairs. He took a deep breath and waited for Clary to come out of the bathroom.

* * *

**Thanks to the reviews from the last part. I'll try to get more in this week but I have to finish my summer homework so I don't know how much will get done. Review and tell me what you think. More will be coming soon. Thanks**

**:D**


End file.
